Arrr! See CONTENTS for links to the 125 chapters of The Monstaville Memoirs plus introductions, conclusions, postscripts and appendices. This treasure trove also includes a collection of articles offering further insights into the themes explored in the trilogy. Namely, managing suffering and conflict (dealing with hostile people if you are nervous, sensitive or shy) and learning not to react

Monstaville Book II. Chapter 4

Sandy wants tranquillity, a peaceful
life, rest, to be left alone. ‘I’m an odd sort of fish who just wants peace and
tranquillity’ (he wants to relax and feel energy - chi - flow and circulate, to feel whole).

Pigsy wants food, wine and women to
satisfy his desires and senses (he wants to increase and stimulate his jing, his sexual essence).

Monkey wants freedom to do what he
wants, to have fun and express his will. He wants magic, adventure and power.
Mischief. Yet, he can only enjoy himself when he can control his mind and
restrain/concentrate his thoughts responsibly (he wants to become more, to
express his will, power and potential - his shen,
or spirit - and be a god but without concerning himself with the needs and
feelings of others, universal harmony or the heavenly order of life).

Sandy wants peace and quiet to
contemplate. But he ends up with a wife who wants lots of children. So, there won’t
be peace and quiet. He has no time to himself owing to all the housework and
the workload his demanding wife gives him. Even in Heaven “where will Sandy find time to
philosophise? His needs are modest. Peace and quiet and an ordinary life. Can
it be that they don’t belong together? Is there no tranquillity in domesticity?
And, is time to think a rare privilege indeed?” (In Heaven where he does not
have to struggle and do a job).

Pigsy wants lots of women but the
price to pay is castration! He has to sacrifice his desire for them totally in
order to share their company. So he prefers to continue on the Buddha’s mission
- responsibility at least gives him a balance. Some restriction is better than
total restriction, which would result from total indulgence in his desires;
that is, perhaps, if he did have ten thousand ladies, he would exhaust his
energy and be impotent and die (an early death).

Sandy: “If that is Heaven, I don’t think
so very much of it. If that’s Heaven, it can wait.” Sandy begs the Jade Emperor to receive him
back in Heaven, to escape from the horrible Earth he hates. His friend, the
star Vega, helps him and his wish is granted but he loses the little time for
reflection he had even on Earth! No privacy in the smothering totality of
consciousness.

Monkey wants freedom to party and
adventure but without the responsibility of Buddha’s mission, without the focus
of that duty, his mind is too wayward and he gets bored with playing all the
time. He needs a goal, a purpose, with the challenge and self-discipline that
entails focussing his will and providing him with a balance. But then he
resents having to exercise self-control. He is very quickly bored. Always the
clown.

The golden headache band which
Buddha gave to Tripitaka to help him control Monkey represents the mind’s
bondage to the body on Earth. The body (Tripitaka) causes pain to the mind.
When it is in trouble or the mind gets carried away and jeopardises the safety
and needs of the body. The body provides discipline and limitation through
pain. Certain ailments curtail attitudes and behaviour that the soul is working
on.

One
day while driving home from his fishing trip in the pouring rain, a man got a
flat tire outside a monastery. A monk came out and invited him inside to have
dinner and spend the night. The motorist accepted. That night he had a
wonderful dinner of fish and chips. He decided to compliment the chef. Entering
the kitchen, he asked the cook, ‘Are
you the fish friar?’ ‘No,’ the man replied, ‘I'm the chip monk.’

The challenge of tests on Earth that
lead to realising one’s Buddha nature are what we need. It is ignorance to complain about them, to reject them or
seek to be rid of them. If they were removed, one would remain unfulfilled. One
would not grow and realise one’s potential. We must therefore accept our lives
on Earth. We have chosen the lessons we need. We should strive not to argue and
fight like animals but to express the original Self, which is One.

Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy, the three
jewels (san bao), are dependent on
Tripitaka, the body. They resent the restrictions but find, in this episode,
that they need them in order to focus on what they want. They need the body’s
restraint to achieve a balance. For, if they get carried away and have everything
they desire, things go too far. Other problems emerge so they end up with
nothing. Thus, mortal life is a blessing in disguise.

Conclusion: “The blows of life
transform us. Life will give us many forms. After Heaven and Earth exist,
individual[ity] is developed to fill the space in between. The birth is always
difficult. We all need help to change and grow. And what if there is no Heaven?
No failure is forever. There is always change and a new beginning.”

“Happiness
has no exchange value. Unhappiness is always in circulation. Life is
continually minting new denominations of unhappiness. In the meeting places of
the world, night and day, these change hands. The unhappy move through the
streets with their pockets bulging. The happy are static, like gold in the
ground.” - Peter Schjeldahl.

“When conditions change, some people
become immobilised by worry. Other people complain. Still others make the
changing conditions into an excuse for not taking action. What do successful
people do when conditions change? Successful people adapt. That's what makes
them consistently successful. When conditions change, suddenly there can be
plenty of reasons to give up. Suddenly there can be plenty of perfectly
understandable justifications for not moving forward. Suddenly there can be an
abundance of excuses for failure. And yet, when conditions change there are
also great opportunities. Some people will have the confidence to recognise
those opportunities and act upon them. Someday everyone will say those people
were lucky, that they were in the right place at the right time. The truth is,
when you're willing and able to adapt, you're always in the right place at the
right time. Those who recognise that fact and take advantage of it by adapting
in a positive way to changing conditions will be very fortunate indeed.” -
Ralph Marston.

“Start by doing what is necessary,
then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” ‑ Saint
Francis of Assisi.

“Our greatest glory is not in never
falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius.

“Never be
limited by other people’s limited imaginations. If you adopt their attitudes,
then the possibility won’t exist because you’ll have already shut it out...You
can hear other people’s wisdom, but you’ve got to re-evaluate the world for
yourself.” - Mae Jemison, the first African female in space.

The Second Ring of Power
by Carlos Castaneda (Pocket
Books, New York, U.S., 1980).

* Anything is possible if one wants it with unbending intent and you
don't let your thoughts interfere.

* Power comes only after we accept our fate without recriminations.

* When one has nothing to lose, one becomes courageous. We are timid
only when there is something we can still cling to.

* A warrior doesn't seek anything for his solace, nor can he possibly
leave anything to chance. A warrior actually affects the outcome of events by
the force of his awareness and his unbending intent.

* A warrior has no compassion for anyone. To have compassion means that
you wish the other person to be like you, to be in your shoes, and you lend a
hand just for that purpose. The hardest thing in the world is for a warrior to
let others be. The impeccability of a warrior is to let them be and to support
them in what they are. That means, of course, that you trust them to be
impeccable warriors themselves. If they are not then it's your duty to be
impeccable yourself and not say a word. Only a sorcerer who sees and is
formless can afford to help anyone. Every effort to help on our part is an
arbitrary act guided by our own self-interest alone.

"Fear
isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as
children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad
wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened
us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in
every individual."
- Alfred Hitchcock.

Lazaris
explains that we are viewed as selfish and self-centred if we want to spend an
hour talking about how wonderful our lives are. If we are happy then the other
person wants us to listen to their problems: “You only get that time if you’re
miserable. If you’re happy, you don’t get any time at all. ‘Huh, your life’s
working, you shut up.’” In other words, unless we give attention to that which
we want and find fulfilling, unless we occupy the space in our minds with
positive thought and energy, unless we fill it with Light and Reality, we are
likely to project negative experiences - pain and illusion - onto the canvas of
our lives. St. Germain explains that this is the Inner Child seeking attention.
It is a subconscious projection and it appears in our lives because emotion is
the most direct manifestation energy. It is the stuff of life and
consciousness.

Lazaris
recommends that we invest time and attention in finding out how we achieved
success. If you don’t, or won’t, he says, then you might create an environment
that is very inducive of self-sabotage because you want attention (both from
yourself and others) and only allow it when you have problems. So you produce
problems.

“Being
irresponsible about your success: ‘I’m here and I don’t know how I got here and
therefore I’m terrified that I won’t be here tomorrow. And I end the suspense,
you see, I end the suspense by crumbling my reality.

You see it in scary movies, yes?
You know there’s a monster, right? That’s going to drip saliva or whatever, eh?
And he’s got an axe or a chainsaw or something. And the young heroine, of
course, has to go looking alone, right? Without a light or without anything,
walking around in the dark, yes. And has to open every door, you know [Makes
loud creaking sounds]. And the suspense builds – the suspense builds so you’re
almost, ‘Oh hurry up and jump out and get her! I can’t stand it! And
finally…the monster gets in there. ‘Oh, oh my gosh, at least it’s over!’

It’s the same thing: ‘I’m
succeeding and I don’t know how. I don’t know when. I don’t know which
floorboard is going to fall through. So [I want to] hurry up and I jump on them
all. So, if I’m going to crash, I hurry up and do it - because I won’t be
responsible for my successes. And therefore I sabotage myself to end the
suspense. ‘At least I know what failure is. I know what it feels like. I’ve
treaded those steps and I’ve walked those treadmills many times before. This
success I don’t understand. And, therefore, people who will not be responsible,
will not figure out ‘how and why and where I created this success,’ are
inducing a situation of sabotage. Again, it’s not guaranteed. It’s not like,
‘Well, if you’re doing it you will
sabotage yourself. We’re suggesting you’re creating an environment that
encourages self-sabotage.”

"What
we need to learn from children isn't childish. Being with them connects us to
the deeper wisdom of life which is ever-present and only asks to be lived. They
know the way to solutions that lie waiting to be recognised within our own
heart. Today, I would like to thank all the children of the world including the
sick and deprived. I am so sensitive to your pain." - Michael Jackson (at
the 35th Annual Grammy Awards, 24 February 1993, Los Angeles, California).

Life is a mighty joke: our illusions
are so precious to us owing to familiarity but they are glass beads compared to
the diamonds of Heaven.

“Life is a mighty joke. He who knows
this can hardly be understood by others. He who does not know it finds himself
in a state of delusion. He may ponder over this problem day and night but will
find himself incapable of knowing it. Why? People take life seriously, and God
lightly; whereas we must take God seriously, and life lightly. Then we know
that we always were the same and will ever remain the same - the originator of
this joke. This Knowledge is not achieved by reasoning, but it is the Knowledge
of experience.” - Meher Baba (How A
Master Works by Ivy O. Duce, Sufism Reoriented, Inc., Walnut Creek, CA.,
U.S., 1975, p.537; from www.avatarmeherbaba.org/erics/joinfun.html).

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Did you know that this is the 12th and lowest universe in our multiverse and that it is founded on the energies of fear and suffering which were not resolved in the 11th?

Karma & Emotions

This e-book explores the opportunity for releasing deep emotional blockages from the past that crisis presents and the notion that this process of self-healing is an essential aspect of spiritual ascension (click the picture for more info & free pdf download)

What is, is; how we react is up to us!

"Life is 10 percent of what you make it and 90 percent of how you take it." - Irving Berlin.

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About Me

Born on 25 November 1965 and currently living in Yorkshire, England. I write songs and books and have a website that serves as a platform for my work as well as being an Ascension resource. The Treasure Chest displays all chapters of The Monstaville Memoirs trilogy as well as further insights from various sources relating to the themes of these books. The Powerlessness of Now reveals the many ways in which we have given our power away to the Establishment through its web of control.

“Someone asked, ‘Why is there suffering?’ [Meher] Baba gave this succinct reply: ‘Suffering is essential for the elimination of the ego, just as it was necessary for you to scrub and scrub in order to wash the stain from my coat.’" - Unkown.

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“Strong souls aren't just born. They are built by forging through the most challenging perils in life and still having the ability to shine.“ – Anon.

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“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”- Joseph Campbell.